Posted by Will (in IL) [69.136.10.43] on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 16:09:03 :
OK, after replacing my fuel injection on my M this winter (after it failed in Iowa last year) I was able to take it out over Easter with the MIJC to shake out the bugs in the TBI and for some trail riding and rock crawling at Flat Nasty.
Found a bad injector that AFI is replacing free under warranty, and a likely program change needed, but the new TBI is for better than the old Pro-Junk unit from Holley, even if they look to be designed by the same Engineer.
After my previous broken front and rear axles, I decided to only turn on the ARB lockers when I had too, not when I thought I needed to. I ended up using them three times on the trails (backing up out of trail #19, and two spots going up trail 6b).
After last years marathon front axle housing and axle replacement at VPW during the Iowa Rally, I hadn't driven the M much, but did notice that my occasional steering bind seemed to be gone. Up until the Flat Nasty run my tires were inflated to 34F/30R, but were aired down to 14F/10R for the off road playing.
After having used the Lockers to get out of the three sticky situations I've noticed the occasional steering bind is back. It's a hard spot in turning the steering, such that I have to turn harder, and the PS belt squeals.
So this afternoon, after some other work I decided to pull the drive flanges to see if there was any indication of any issues.
On the passenger side, the axle sticking out of the hub has about 3/16-7/32" of end play, and only a slight rotational play. On the drivers side it has about 3/32-1/8" end play, and the same amount of rotational play.
Short of pulling everything apart, is there any thing else to check to see of the Tracta Joints might be opening up causing some binding issues?
All the bushing except the passenger spindle were installed new last year at Iowa.
Will
Follow Ups: